Coppers and Brass helps to Share the Sound
Leading artist auctions work to support uilleann pipers.
PRESS RELEASE, September 2015
Coppers and Brass helps to Share the Sound
Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU) are delighted to announce that renowned artist and uilleann piper, JB (Brian) Vallely, has very generously donated a painting for auction to support the NPU Sharing the Sound fundraising campaign. Brian is a founding member of NPU and, together with his wife Éithne, also set up the Armagh Pipers Club in 1966. He has a lifelong passion for the uilleann pipes and Irish music and many of his works feature pipers and other musicians.
The painting, entitled Coppers and Brass, is oil on canvas and measures 50 x 75.5cm. It will be auctioned by Adams Auctioneers on Wednesday 30th September. Adams have placed an estimate of between €8,000 and €12,000 on the work and have very generously agreed to forego their usual commission in order to support the NPU fundraising campaign.
Born in 1941 into an Armagh family with a strong cultural involvement in sport and language, Brian sold his first painting in 1958 at the age of seventeen. He went on to study at the Belfast College of Art from 1959 where he was taught by Tom Carr and later at the Edinburgh Art College.
A retrospective of Brian’s work was held in Armagh in 2000 and the show comprised almost two hundred paintings from different stages of his forty year career as a painter. Vallely’s subject matter has remained linked to the past but his feeling for paint is vigorously contemporary. Rural Ireland, its traditions, music, sports and mythology create strong themes within his work and his interest in traditional culture is almost vocational.
NPU’s Sharing the Sound fundraising campaign includes our ambitious plans to create an International Uilleann Piping Visitor Centre and Theatre on the site of 16 Henrietta Street. Following a Dublin City Council open public design competition, facilitated by the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland, and planning approval by the Council in 2011, Na Píobairí Uilleann now has a unique opportunity to realize the design for number 16 Henrietta Street. This landmark building reinstates the original Georgian Streetscape, creating an International Uilleann Piping Centre, Theatre, Training Facility and Archive showcasing the unique sound of Ireland – the Uilleann Pipes.
NPU would like to express sincere thanks to Brian for his wonderful generosity and unflinching support for Na Píobairí Uilleann throughout the years.
About Na Píobairí Uilleann
Na Píobairí Uilleann (NPU), the Society of Uilleann Pipers was founded in 1968 when there were less than 100 uilleann pipers remaining. Now, over 45 years later, NPU is a thriving arts organisation dedicated to Sharing the Sound of Ireland through Access, Education, Performance and Preservation, delivered through the organisation’s commitment to excellence in values, governance and processes.
Based at number 15 on Dublin’s historic Henrietta Street , Na Píobairí Uilleann now have a unique opportunity to support ever-growing, worldwide demand for services by developing the award-winning design for the adjacent site of no. 16 creating an International Uilleann Piping Centre, Theatre, Training Facility, Museum and Archive showcasing this truly unique sound of Ireland – the Uilleann Pipes.
NPU recently launched a new look web site and two innovative new mobile apps Moving Cloud and Pipecraft, the first of their kind within the Irish traditional arts world.
Na Píobairí Uilleann’s primary funding agencies include the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism, The Arts Council / An Comhairle Ealaíon and Dublin City Council.
Na Píobairí Uilleann, 15 Henrietta Street, Dublin 1, Ireland
W: www.pipers.ie E:info@pipers.ie P: 00353(0)1 8730093
www.facebook.com/napiobairiuilleann
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Photos available on request from info@pipers.ie
